Hoshor Plains hold my hand

Novak appeared out of her haze, and she regarded him in awe at first, recognizing him at once as a wolf she had once trusted. Then she remembered his abandonment of the Ridge, and Diane shied away from the male, backing away until she had nearly backed into Goldhawk. His voice, a melody from a long lost dream, traveled up her spine, and she whirled to find the reassurance of his aurelian face, just as he turned his suspicions upon Novak. She opened her mouth to protest, to assure her knight in golden armor that the brutish male was not an enemy, but words failed her. Her throat seemed to close, and Diane couldn't find her voice to neither confirm or deny anything in that moment.

She backed away. Novak had not harmed her physically, but emotionally, she realized that she was hurt by his disloyalty; she thought it a curse. Having fled her drowned home, she would forever wander and hope to be loved, hope to find a family and start one of her own, but how could she? She had forsaken the Sea, and she was here now, everywhere, eroding away all the sweet things until she was left with nothing but bitterness and a vast loneliness she felt destined to suffer eternally.

Any love she felt would be taken from her. Never would anyone stay by her, as she had not stayed by her family. Goldhawk, The Wolf, Taggarik, Vuk, Terich-mir, Jhala, Novak, Capriccio, Illea... they would all leave her, if they had not already, or be taken from her, and recent injury and paranoia drained her trust away from herself. She could not have companions. She could not build or keep a life until she had atoned. Atoned for the lives she did not even try to save or search for.

Weak. Nobody could see how weak she was. Everyone seemed to care, and in her delusion she thought this was all a part of the vexation. She would attract all manner of friend to her side, only to lose them through abandonment or worse. Diane feared this course of life, and she began to backpedal, her senses lost to the wind as she stumbled back and then turned to limp furiously in the direction of the river.

Her legs carried her as quickly as they could in her condition. She moved without direction, and with only the intent in mind to distance herself from the potentially bickering males. Ears plastered against her skull, she could see the river ahead, and her heart lept instinctively. Water! I need water! She toddled forward carelessly, cradling her injured foot to her chest and whining as the glistening rush of water hypnotized her and drew her close. Her mouth opened, desperate for a drink, and she fell down the invisible embankment, plunging head-first into the water.

Normally this might have been a simple occurrence, but the injured seawolf was immediately overpowered by the current, and with only three legs it took only six seconds for her to become an uncatchable drift in the river. She struggled, of course, but the strangling liquid was too fast and too cold for her to survive it, and she was taken from the scene, hopefully to be deposited in the ocean, but probably not.

Change of plans! Sorry, Ells, but I started thinking about Diane's future in The Famine and realistically since she can't hunt for herself, she would refuse to take any food because of her personality -- as she sees resources would be better spent on those able to be useful -- and would suffer a slow starvation that I don't feel like going through xD I was already planning on her refusing food for a while, but the dynamics change slightly, now that a plague happened. My sincerest apologies for the traumatization <3